Senegal based Fintech Wave Mobile Money is set to lay off more staff, hardly six months after another restructuring exercise, reports indicate.
The second restructuring, which is expected to take place on Thursday, November 17, 2022, is expected to leave a skeleton staff of about 25 amid concerns that the company could be planning an exit strategy.
This comes after the company posted a Shs18b loss as reported in its financial statement for the last year.
The CEO Magazine, quoting unnamed sources, said the company plans to leave skeleton staff, a sign that the company’s future in Uganda is not guaranteed.
Wave laid off about 15% (about 2,000) of its staff in June across different countries. In Uganda, about 300 staff were affected.
According to a statement Wave released to its employees on June 30, the company said it was scaling back its teams in these markets as part of efforts to make sure it doesn’t have to depend on new funding at a time “when investors around the world are cutting back.”
Wave said its decision to pull out from newer markets will help it double down on Senegal and Ivory Coast, core markets “where we are market leaders in mobile money with growing businesses,” as it continues to serve its new markets.
However, the company, which is valued at $1.7 billion, in July raised about #91m in venture debt financing. This was expected to be injected into the company to further expand its operations.
The company’s mobile money strategy offers free deposits and withdrawals as well as 1% charge on cash transfers. Wave hoped that this would give it more customers. However, the strategy appears to have backfired after the company posted huge losses.
